Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue. It is, beyond question, time that this Government went. Clearly, given what the Minister, Deputy Cullen said, it will not go because it is totally out of touch and afraid. The Minister referred to the need to sort out the banking problems. We all agree on this and Fine Gael supported the first proposal on banking. However, when we got some idea of the situation in Anglo Irish Bank, we raised legitimate questions. That is the job of Opposition.

Farmers now have total borrowings of €5.5 billion, an increase of €700 million from last year. Yet, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Brendan Smith, failed to provide the grant aid farmers were promised and guaranteed when they started to work on various schemes. The Minister, Deputy Smith, failed to allow the farm waste management scheme to proceed past 31 December so farmers could have time to get their jobs done and builders would have opportunities to work.

He closed down the building trade and increased the cost to farmers. Farmers were able to get jobs done for almost half of what they would have cost, but they are not paid. If farmers had received the money instead of being paid on a 40:40:20 basis, the banks would have been re-financed.

Many farmers are still paying very high rates of interest because they did not think they would have to borrow money on a long-term basis and instead used their overdrafts. It is a critical situation. The collapse in beef prices, due to bad management, and the collapse of the dairy industry, which the Government has totally failed to deal with at European level, are crises that affect the whole farming industry. Deputy Neville referred to problems regarding mental health. The problems suffered by farmers is causing mental health issues and there have been, and will continue to be, serious consequences.

Regarding cuts in education grants, we all know cuts were needed. However, how was it that the minority community in this country, which had been looked after in a realistic way since the foundation of the State, had its grants cut? The only grants which were cut were those provided to Protestant schools. That was clear and absolute discrimination and there is no justification for it.

If one is in a fee paying school, the ratio is one teacher to 20 pupils, compared to one for 19 pupils in other schools. There are many other issues which I do not have time to go into. Schools such as the Collegiate in Monaghan, the Royal School in Cavan, Sligo Grammar School, Bandon Grammar School and others have been penalised by this measure.

There have been cuts funding for special learning, which is against the long-term interests of the children concerned. There has also been a withdrawal of support from some of the institutions which deal with children who have problems such as cerebral palsy and spina bifida. I spoke to a parent today who is scared stiff and does not know where their child will go next year.

Health is the main issue as far as the people of Cavan and Monaghan are concerned. I do not know how the Government can retain the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney, when she does not represent a party or anything else. She has no mandate. She is completely out of touch with reality and spins whatever she thinks is the right thing to do. She is spending more on spin doctors than on many other sectors of the health service. Home helps are being taken from people who are more than 90 years of age. When home helps are on holidays they will not be replaced. When I raised that matter in the Dáil recently I received an utterly ridiculous answer.

The situation may be funny for the Ministers who are sitting opposite but it is not funny for the people on the Border. That area has been completely devastated because of the Government's policies. We pay 21.5% VAT when it is 15% across the Border. We pay more for electricity, gas and many other items. Our costs at Government level are far higher and nothing is being done about it. The loss in revenue from the movement northwards this year is causing much of the problem. The Minister for Finance admitted that he had made a mistake in increasing VAT. Yet, when we had another budget he failed to do anything about it. I have no confidence in the Government. The people of Cavan-Monaghan have no confidence in it. The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Smith, has called a third recount to try to save one seat on the county council. That is an example of the pressure he is under in that area. It is time the Government went to the country and got a proper mandate.

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